This is the class blog for Eng 1102 at GA Tech called "Fiction, Human Rights, and Social Responsibility." The purpose of this blog is to extend our discussion beyond the classroom and to become aware of human rights issues that exist in the world today and how technology has played a role in either solving or aggravating them. Blogs will be a paragraph long (250 words) and students will contribute once every three weeks according to class number. Entries must be posted by Friday midnight.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Government's influences on human rights

Government shutdown finally ends. President Obama signed a bill to reopen the federal government and lift the debt limit on Thursday morning. Right after the shutdown, analysts warned that the maximum time for a government shut down under current circumstances is 17 days, because the loss after 17 days would be disastrous. The cause of this shutdown was disagreement between the two parties around the issue of whether or not to continue funding for Affordable Care Act. The republicans claim that this Act(also known as Obamacare) is a violation of constitutional rights. While the white house claims: Affordable Care Act is comprehensive reforms that improve access to affordable health coverage for everyone and protect consumers from abusive insurance company practices. Both sides claim that they are protecting people's rights, but how on earth can government influences our rights?

With more rights, comes more obligations, and some of these obligations might limit peoples' rights. For instance, Affordable Care Act gives everyone the right to access affordable health coverage, but at the same time, this healthcare plan becomes mandatory to ensure everyone is covered. The republicans claim this Act is a violation of the First Amendment of United States Constitution because some people do not believe in healthcare because of religion issues while Obamacare forces them to pay for healthcare. However, in general, Obamacare also ensures people who cannot afford commercial health insurance have the access to healthcare, thus saves hundreds of thousands of US citizens' lives. Government decisions are filled with all kinds of trade-offs and compromises. In those good decisions, although parts of people's right is compromised, better outcomes are achieved. In those bad decisions, people's rights are compromised for nothing or even worse outcomes.